China’s IC Industry: 'Don't Let World Bully Us'

Recent international forums have concluded the development of China's IC industry is a threat to the world. Prof. Wei Shaojun makes the case why that's not true.

Although China is already the world’s largest market for ICs, its semiconductor industry's self-sufficiency remains weak and its dependence on foreign supply remains strong. A number of recent international forums concluded that the development of China’s IC industry is a threat to the world.

Wei Shaojun, Chairman of China Semiconductor Industry Association (CSIA) IC Design Subcommittee and Professor at Tsinghua University Micro- and Nano-Electronics Department, delivered a keynote address at the China (Shenzhen) 2016 IC Innovative Application Summit entitled, “Is the Development of China’s IC Industry a Threat?” During his address, Prof. Wei provided an overview of the development of China’s IC industry, spoke whether this development is a global threat, and discussed how to resolve this contradiction.

The diagram below shows the projected development of the global IC industry. Prof. Wei said that although the projections were made in 2014, they remain essentially unchanged today. “Many people believe that the personal computer has already peaked, and that the market is gone. However, that's not necessarily true. Many in leadership positions are easily fooled, fooled by a small group of people, fooled by certain special interest groups.” he pointed out.

Editor's note: EDN China's Franklin Zhao shot these images of Wei Shaojun's presentation. We did not translate the slide deck but felt the article was interesting on its own.

Over the last two years it may seem that PC production has declined, but from a global perspective there is actually no decline; the total number is still increasing. Moreover, China leads this global development (the chart shows the proportion and relationship of major product groups in China over the last several years). For example, in 2009 China’s mobile phone production accounted for 47% of the global total. In 2014, this stood at 84% and has continued to rise in the last two years. Furthermore, China produced 82% of tablet computers, 66% of color TVs, and 81% of PCs of the world. China’s electronics industry as a share of the global market is continuing to rise. Both the Chinese and the global electronics industries are growing, with China acting as the world’s factory.

China’s share of the smartphone market has yet to reach 50% but is projected to get there by 2020. Currently, China’s share of the tablet market is high, but that doesn’t mean that it will stay this high indefinitely. In terms of the Ultra HD TV (4K and above) market, China still occupies a relatively small portion but will see a large increase by 2020. China’s portion of consumer semiconductor products will also increase; it currently stands at about 1/3 globally and is projected to increase into the future.

Because China is the world’s factory, China’s imports of foreign chips are correspondingly high. In recent years, China’s chip imports have remained high. In 2015, China imported nearly 70% of the world’s chips (of course, this number includes some double counting).

The diagram below lists the IC products purchased by China in categories. It shows that the largest import categories are specialty logic circuits (cellphone chips), memory devices, and analog circuits. Because the industry will not experience any fundamental disruptions in the coming years, these shares will see no drastic change. At the same time, 50% of the ICs China imports will be exported as an integrated part of our finished products. Although we import a great deal, we don’t consume them ourselves. We consume about 25.4% of the world’s chips, worth about $85 billion dollars.

China is an indispensable part of the global IC industry

The diagram below shows the development trends of the IC industry in China for 2015. Prof. Wei spoke about the discrepancy between the statistics from China and abroad. China’s statistics reflect the sum of three elements: design, packaging, and manufacturing; however, these elements overlap in the calculation of the true overall value. International statistics calculate the final value of the ICs, indicating their design or IDM value.

The development of each segment in the industry chain for 2015 is shown in the diagram below. Last year, packaging and testing grew by 10.2%, and chip manufacturing surpassed design for the first time last year, reaching 26.5%. This rate of development is good (although this high number is partly due to new production by Samsung’s Xi’an factory, which accounts for 10 of the 26.5 percentage points; in reality, our investment has not yet been fully put into place). When looking at China’s share of the design segment of the industry globally, the number is less optimistic — merely 5.8%.

To summarize, China imported 70% of the world’s chips and used 25%, and globally only 6% of the chips were manufactured in China. However, the world benefited significantly from China’s large purchases.

Prof. Wei said that these increases in China’s manufacturing are exciting – from 2008 to 2015 the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) reached 12.59%, while the global growth rate for last few years has been in the 2%~3% range. In comparison, China’s growth rate was very high. As investment is gradually put into place in the coming years, China will maintain a double-digit growth rate.

China’s fab technologies still lag behind other nations. After deducting the contributions of Samsung’s Xi’an fab, the real growth rate of the IC manufacturing segment of the industry is 16.7%. China lags by two generations (four years), and this situation will not change until 2020. Because of this, there are now two prevailing notions in China. One is very cynical: trying to catch up is useless, and China should continue to follow in the footsteps of others. The other point of view is more important: a lack of major breakthroughs in manufacturing will hinder our design segment. In fact, our design segment finds it difficult to find the production capacity needed in its extensive search. Prior to 2020, we will largely rely on global partners for advanced technology.

The chip design segment of the industry in the Mainland China will continue to grow rapidly. The CAGR from 2000 to 2015 reached 45.68%, and it will continue to rise this year. China’s first quarter CAGR was 26.1%, and we can predict with a great deal of confidence that it will be over 20% for the year. If the calculation is modified to include sales by enterprises acquired by Chinese companies in 2014 and 2015, this number would be sustained at above 25%. Therefore, there is hope that this year’s total sales will reach RMB 160 billion to 165 billion. This figure, according to Prof. Wei, persuasively indicates that China is holding firmly to its number two position globally.

In 2015, China’s chip design segment held a 22.9% share of the global market, but the situation was not ideal if we look at the product breakdown. Aside from chip used in telecommunication, which grew from RMB 10 billion to 60 billion, growths in other fields (computers, multimedia, navigation, simulation, power, and consumer products) were extremely slow. Therefore, without that growth in telecommunication, China’s overall growth in the design segment in 2016 would be essentially the same as in 2011. This indicates the presence of major limitations that hamper product innovation among Chinese companies.

The chart below shows the ten largest design enterprises and their rankings, both in China and globally. As the chart shows, HiSilicon and Spreadtrum have already entered the global top ten. It also indicates that the gap between AMD and HiSilicon is not large, which will perhaps close the gap a bit further this year. It is also possible that Spreadtrum will make more progress this year. China currently has more than ten companies that have entered the global top 50 ranking, and by 2020 there may be a third Chinese company entering the top 10. The packaging segment is a little bit less active. This year, the size of the design segment will surpass the packaging segment to become the largest. The packaging segment is labor intensive. Rising labor costs and falling unit prices, following product technology improvements, are contributing factors to the slowing growth in the packaging segment.

Investment will increase, but investment in China as compared to the rest of the world will remain small. Over the next 5 years, China’s direct investment in the IC field will surpass RMB 50 billion ($7.5 million USD), with 20% of that coming from global partners, such factory constructions by TSMC in Nanjing, UMC in Xiamen, and PowerChip in Hefei.

China is an important part of the global value chain. China’s IC industry is an integral component of the global IC industry; we have arrived at true inseparability and interconnectedness.

To get ahead the Chinese keep inventing myths to indoctrinate & motivate their own people ( everybody is against us ! ), lie & cheat when weak in a relation ( as with the US till recently ), and bully / use strongarm tactics when in a strong position ( starting with illegally occupying Tibet by fabricating history, now building those artificial islands in the So. China Sea to extend sovereignty beyond international limits into those of much smaller / weaker countries like the Phillipines ) and lastly what they have been doing to QCOMM.

In all this EE Times helps them by repeating the fiction that China has to import over 80% of their domestic chip consumption. People keep writing articles here w/o first verifying for themselves how China calculates their chip imports.

Bet it includes the huge fraction imported by Assembly Houses like FoxConn to assemble iPhones etc for export.

I have noticed this before, where the Chinese seem to not understand that the fact that they are "the factory for the world" does not sit well with many, many people. It is an expedient that businesses might like, in their now familiar short-term thinking, but it is something that has most thinking people on edge.

However, as of now anyway, the Chinese economy is still centrally controlled, and the government is focusing more on developing domestic demand. And Chinese worker incomes have risen sharply in the past decade. So I see this unbalanced state of affairs resolving itself, in probably less time than some might think. It's funny how fast change can come, when it begins gaining momentum.

Hi Bert22306: There's a good reason you feel conflicted about the story. The article as written for an audience in China and was not written from an American point of view. One of our Chinese colleages on EDN China wrote the story.

EE Times US is now translating and posting some content from our overseas branches (written by our editors) to get an insider's glimpse into China's electronics industry. You won't see this content anywhere else.

Funny, I came away thinking that just as manufacturing has gone to China in a really big way, so is the IC industry trending. I'm not sure how anyone can conclude otherwise. The article wants to claim that the Chinese IC industry is not a threat, and then gives statistics that make the opposite point.

It's hardly surprising that countries feel nervous about losing so much of their domestic industries. To China, now, but that's not the point. To anyone, is the point. And the article boasted about how this has been happening.

Next, the article boasts about the double digit growth of the IC industry in China, in the years leading to 2020.

So, what's left?

Any reasonable person would feel nervous, if their country loses self sufficiency in such large measure. The article seems to give statistics that only make matters worse, using the excuse that China is the world's factory. The vast majority of all CE products, with perhaps one exeption, are produced in China, and that percentage is only going up, the article shows. Well, guess what? That alone makes people nervous. A strange defense indeed.

However, my conviction is that the economic system takes care of itself, even in spite of politicians' attempts to meddle with it. So the economic incentives to export manufacturing are already changing, which should restore some sense of balance in the future.